The problem with studying
It requires good footwork to excel in every subject and discipline, especially when you are in high school, that you would be tested on. To have a gargantuan knowledge and be fully confident of the impending examinations, you would have to recline on your chair, on your sofa, on your armchair, on your chaise lounge, on your club chair or any kind of upholstered furniture, and be prepared to sit there for long hours to study despite how hungry you are or how tired you are.
It sounds very grueling and vapid to many students, especially those who don't take studying too seriously, but for the case of hardworking, truly meticulous students, they would also feel stressed, and even suicidal. Studying, indeed, takes a lot of time to read and assimilate, but the knowledge gleaned from textbooks and notes do not necessarily help in tackling the questions in examinations. That is the kernel of the problem of studying.
We often envy students who flaunt their abilities, as shown in their marks, and who gloat over their achievements. But who knows their genuine secrets? No one knows the bona fide stratagem since every student has each of their singularly abilities, and each of them has foibles of their own. The problem with studying is that the content we gleaned from textbooks are not directly useful, instead, it must be applied indirectly through the application of various questions. Then, one will ponder over the question: is buying textbooks and studying them day and night desultory? Are they unworthy?
Albeit these may not be true in some countries and education systems, they are often conflated from the countless jeremiads students voice. As a student last time, I had also experienced this bane. Since I had studied the more advanced courses, I could not moan much. But who would want to ensconce in their status quo and be happy being ordinary? Recently, there are more intelligent students who can score distinctions, and they form a larger percentage of the total cohort of nearly every school. That makes all the more exigent to study harder, but rarely, smarter. Everybody, who wants to get distinctions, overlooks the fact of studying smarter. They are foisted, or perhaps, foist themselves, on enrichment books, tuition classes and the like. if not for excelling in their studies, they would find their life insipid, or worse, see themselves as an underachiever and want to take vengeance.
What is the true purpose of studying when most of our knowledge could not be put to good use during examinations? One student, whom I know, said that he needed to think longer than he expected to understand certain Physics questions (he is taking Pure Physics, by the way). Perhaps it just a fluke to get a distinction for every subject you are taking?
We have so many books, but so little time. Nay, we have so many books and have sufficient time to study, but the examinations are too absurd. Now that should be the right way.
